Himeji

Today we took the train to Himeji to see the Himeji castle - White Heron. I loved it, great diversion from endless temples, blah. Plus, the coolest thing of all, I got to wear a ceremonial Kimono that people in Court used to wear 1000 years ago. It had 12 layers and took them over 30 min to put on properly - don't worry, we took lots of pictures and I'll post them when I get the chance.

For dinner, I had sushi for the first time here in Japan. We went to this place with sushi sets and Kaisei (I think that's what you call them). I got this fancy thing that had this little armoir that had drawers of food. Interesting. The ambiance was super nice though, with a tatami room and a cute little garden outside. The sushi was good, but not excellent, I'm waiting for better - hopefully when I go to the fish market in Tokyo. But still, it was an awesome dinner experience. I think my dad didn't hate it.

A number of people here in Japan wear little face masks - white ones that go over your mouth and nose. I wonder if it's for the same reason as in China which is to protect themselves from germs. I think it's a great way of dealing with halitosis, however, getting the people who need them to actually wear them would be difficult.

I love drink vending machines. I have a newfound love for getting little bottles of hot milky tea at the train station. They keep me warm while I'm waiting for the train and make me happy because they're yummy.

Oh and onigri triangles - they sell them everywhere - convenience stores, newspaper stands... they are my new breakfast - two 100yen rice triangles wrapped in seaweed- one right away and one on the train and all is well. Even my dad had one and didn't it. To be fair, I don't think he's hated anything other than that dim sum-esque experience with the funny sweat potatoes.

Ok, off to a hot bath now - in the big bath in the ryokan that had floating fruit - some fragrant yellow fruit. They taste sour (I had it in a restaurant, not out of my bath) and smell a bit like pomelo but are shaped like oranges. They're very sweet and flowery smelling.

Morning in Kyoto tomorrow and then back to Tokyo. Hopefully, I'll be able to continue blogging from Tokyo.

Day 2 in Japan

Today I saw way too many temples. It:s just one blurry onslaught of Japanese temples. Supposedly, there:re different too, like Shinto vs Buddhist, but I dont know anymore. Plus, a ridulous amount of walking. But that:s probably my own fault since I kept insisting on walking up the steep steps to all the little temples in the hills.

I went to the Gion district in Kyoto today, but didn:t see any real Geishas, I think. But that would be hard of course since there are less than 100 of them or something like that. I did see some women dressed up in Kimonos and some made up too. I guess that:s good enough.

I went to dinner at this Japanese restaurant with hot pots. It turned out that our chef dude was Chinese which made ordering vastly easier.

It makes my dad really happy that he can read all the signs in Kanji and he likes to read them to me and insist on the Chinese pronounciation of everything which of course doesn:t help me since I:m reading the Japanese names in Latin letters...

Himeji tomorrow...

First 1.5 days in Japan

Wow, the plane trip was never ending. Not only was the plane ride itself really long but it was made additionally long by the extra 5 hours we had to wait for the plane crew to get to the airport (about 3 hours) and the de-icing of the plane (another 2 hours). Did you know that they spray funny green stuff on the plane to de-ice it?
So instead of spending half a day in Narita to get oriented and de-jetlagged, we headed straight from the airport to the hotel to wake up the next morning - or wake up 300 times until the next morning - to travel to Kyoto. I never knew that you can have butt pain from sitting for too long but apparently it really can be a pain in the ass.
Today we arrived in Kyoto. It was super beautiful in Tokyo but as we headed West, became cloudier and cloudier until we reached our destination in Kyoto. More to come later...
Brief preview - yummy awesome noodles for lunch, even though we ordered from a picture, saw a temple, bamboo groves, a fancy garden, and the lantern festival which conveniently lasted until today, had dinner at a little Japanese pub with yummy things like chicken heart but my dad hated everything there and refused to eat anything after his experience with a raw quail egg and some funny consistency potato.

Final pictures uploaded

Finally, I have uploaded pictures from my final days in Paris. Enjoy!

I wanted to explain this final picture:In preparation for the work I requested on my bedroom window, I moved my glass figurines to a shelf in the living room, to protect them from damage, obviously. However, it seems that they were far from safe. Apparently, this gentleman offended the revolutionary forces and was subjected the the guillotine, whilst holding the hand of his lady friend and listening to harp music.